M-113 creature
The M-113 creature (also known as the salt vampire) is the name given to a species that once lived on M-113. Description and Capabilities The creature stood a little over 1.5m tall. It had brownish skin with purplish highlights. The face had a series of sagging folds that, together with the cast of the yellowish eyes, gave it a sad appearance. The mouth was a kind of everted snout, within which were a small number of extremely sharp teeth. The body was covered with stringy, whitish hair. This creature also wore a brown, netlike garment. There are two arms and two legs; each hand has three thick fingers. This is the description of the single observed specimen and may not apply to all members of the species. Each of the three fingers had three sucker-like feeding organs. The creature used these to extract its food, salt, from its prey; the process was painful, and left a reddish, ring-like mottling on the skin. The creature could also ingest pure salt through its mouth. M-113 creatures were very strong, stronger even than Vulcans. A single backhanded slap from one was sufficient to stun Spock; by contrast, he hit the creature several times with double handed punches, without apparent effect. M-113 creatures were also highly intelligent, capable of carrying on conversations with other intelligent beings. Some form of telepathy enabled them to draw an image from the mind of someone near; this image was usually of someone trustworthy or appealing. This image in turn enabled the creature to approach prey easily. At very close range, the creature could fascinate or mentally paralyze its prey, preventing it from escaping even if it saw the creature's actual form. The creature could feed equally well in its natural form, or while projecting one of these images. When the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|USS Enterprise]]'s landing party first encountered it, each member saw a different version of Nancy Crater, although they did not realize this. The M-113 creature could feed on Humans, but either could not, or did not wish to, feed on Spock. He theorized that his copper-based blood salts were unappealing or not nourishing. The Enterprise Encounter In 2266, the Enterprise visited M-113 for routine medical checks of the two scientists working there. At that time, they encountered what was, according to Professer Robert Crater, the last of the M-113 creatures. This particular creature evidently saw humans chiefly as food. As there was no opportunity to question it, it is unclear if this attitude arose from desperation or if it was the natural outlook of the species. Either way, the creature proved highly dangerous. In 2264 or 2265, it murdered the real Nancy Crater, an act that almost drove Crater to destroy it. In the end, the fact that it was the last of its kind, or perhaps its ability to assume any form, stayed his hand, and he lived with it for a year or more. At the time the landing party arrived in 2266, the Crater expedition was dangerously low on salt, the creature's natural food. The creature's hunger drove it to murder crewmen Barnhart, Darnell, Sturgeon and Green on the surface of M-113; as Nancy Crater, it blamed Darnell's death on ingestion of a Borgia plant. Impersonating crewman Green, it returned to the Enterprise, where chance saved Yeoman Janice Rand from becoming its next victim. It followed her when she brought Sulu his dinner, and might have murdered both officers except that Beauregard, a curious plant in Sulu's botany collection, scared it off. An encounter with Uhura, as a crewman drawn from her mind, also proved frustrating for it. Seconds from killing her, it was distracted by Sulu and Rand. It later murdered an engineering technician named Barnhardt on Deck 9. Around this time, Kirk and Spock found Professor Crater on the surface of M-113, and returned to the ship with him. The creature, then impersonating McCoy, sat in on a staff meeting at which it learned that Crater knew how to identify it. Before Crater could reveal (or be made to reveal) how this might be done, the creature murdered him and fled to McCoy's quarters. Kirk found it there, and attempted to lure it to him with salt. In the resulting scuffle, it overpowered Kirk and began to feed on him. It wasn't until the creature dropped its hypnotic projection, and Kirk began to scream from the pain of salt extraction, that McCoy was able to shoot and kill the creature. (TOS: "The Man Trap") :The creature could have killed McCoy on several occasions, and chose not to do so. Robert Crater chose not to kill the creature, even after he knew it had murdered his wife. And McCoy had great difficulty killing it, even when he knew what it was. It is possible that the strong emotions involved worked through the creature's telepathy to form some sort of mutual bond that kept the creature from viewing those who held it (or its image) in high regard as prey, and that likewise kept them from seeing the danger it represented. :The M-113 creature in it's natural state was played by Sharon Gimpel.